To all the drivers out there, pay attention, your moment of inattention might transform you from a motorist to a murderer. To all the cyclists out there, keep your head on a swivel, paying attention is always a good idea.

EDIT: I called the cops,

They informed me that the person was in fact struck by a car, but DID NOT die. Which is great. I can only hope they heal up fast. If anyone wants more info they need to go to the police headquarters on Ruggles and request the info, as they apparently don’t give out more details over the phone for some odd reason.

more info on the PI day race here.

Amazing…

———

Boston Region MPO Begins Development of New Long¬-Range Transportation Plan;
Invites Ideas from the Public on Title for New Plan

The Boston Region Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) is beginning work on a new Long-¬Range Transportation Plan (LRTP) that will establish a 25¬year vision for the transportation system in the MPO’s 101¬-municipality area in eastern Massachusetts. The LRTP will provide a foundation for future transportation planning in the region, since the MPO members will look at the visions and policies defined in that planning document when making decisions about which transportation projects and programs to support with the federal transportation dollars they are charged with allocating. The development of the LRTP will involve a robust public participation process, as the MPO aims to develop a plan that addresses the transportation needs of residents of the region and supports regional priorities.

Federal transportation legislation requires MPOs to prepare a new LRTP every four years. The LRTP describes the MPO’s visions and policies, and includes a network of transportation projects and programs that are consistent with those visions and policies. As a fiscally constrained document, the LRTP includes only projects and programs that can be funded by projected revenues. The Boston Region MPO’s last LRTP, JOURNEY TO 2030, was adopted in 2007, and was amended in the fall of 2009. The MPO must adopt the next LRTP by April 2011.

In the new LRTP, the MPO will establish strategies for addressing regional priorities, including: enhancing livability; promoting healthy transportation alternatives; improving mobility, safety, and security for users of the transportation system; advancing environmental justice; addressing climate change and air quality; and improving operations and management of the transportation system. Many of these themes were also a focus in the current plan.

The MPO will approach the development of the new LRTP by conducting a needs assessment that identifies mobility challenges in the region. For this work, the MPO plans to make use of data and analyses from the MPO’s Congestion Management Process, which is used to monitor the performance of the region’s transportation system, and other planning work that has been completed. It will also fold in ideas gathered from other outreach initiatives, such as youMove Massachusetts. The MPO will also invite members of the public to give feedback about their transportation needs.

This work will lead to the development of various networks of projects, programs, and strategies designed to help meet the region’s transportation needs. These networks will be evaluated by using the MPO’s computerized transportation models. With input from the public, the network that would best meet the region’s transportation needs will be selected for the LRTP.

For more information about the development of the LRTP and how members of the public can participate, please visit the MPO’s website, www.bostonmpo.org.

The MPO staff also invites members of the public to help name the new LRTP. The title should reflect the MPO’s desire to promote sustainability in the region. It should also include “2035,” which is the date used as the “planning horizon” for the next LRTP. Title suggestions should be submitted via e¬mail to publicinformation@bostonmpo.org by Friday, March 26.

The Boston Region MPO is responsible for conducting regional transportation planning and for programming federal capital funding for transit and highway projects in 101 municipalities in eastern Massachusetts. The MPO members include transportation and planning agencies and organizations, and municipalities.

New England Velodrome & Cycling Park
www.nevelodrome.com

Cycling for All!
January 2009- Vol 2, Issue 1
Thank you!

Dear Fellow Cyclists, volunteers, parents, sponsors and friends,

It is never easy convey disappointing news to friends and the task becomes more difficult when as in this case the news comes without warning and is the direct result of an intentional and calculated scheme by those who on numerous occasions professed to be in support of our project all the while studying our organization and planning to take over control for themselves.

First and foremost, the New England Velodrome & Cycling Park, thanks all of you for your many contributions over the past 5 years. Without you believing in, supporting and in many cases contributing sweat equity to our grass roots project the New England Velodrome and Cycling Park would have never gotten off the ground. It has been our pleasure to meet you all and to have had you as part of our cycling family.

Unfortunately, our collective efforts were brushed aside in the face of few more dollars. This morning, March 10, 2010, I was informed that someone had offered the owner of the property an increased monthly rent to take over control of the track, as well as the BMX and Cyclocross courses. This turn of events is in itself was upsetting to hear, however, it has also just come to light that this planned takeover was orchestrated by Jeff Palter and Kurt Begman of Cycleloft who attended our track and disingenuously expressed their support of what we had accomplished through hard work coupled with a collective passion for cycling. One can attempt to justify such actions on the basis of cold hard economics or in the interests of allegedly improving a product however the true reality is that this act is fueled by bruised egos and the desire to buy a concern after others have done the grunt work in establishing its viability. In short this act is contrary to very atmosphere many of you have fostered and come to expect from the New England Velodrome and Cycling Park and its staff.

Make no mistake about it, this was not a mutual decision nor was it necessitated by our own wish to turn over the cycling park to more “experienced hands”. This development came as a complete surprise, one we certainly did not anticipate on the eve of the upcoming cycling season. At this point we had sponsors on board, grants on the way and the schedule was complete. We tell you this only to assure you that the staff of the New England Velodrome and Cycling Park was 100% committed to the success of New England Velodrome & Cycling Park and it saddens all of us to have to deliver this news to you.

It is disturbing and disheartening to know that someone from the cycling community would do this behind our backs and with a vindictive motive. That being said, our sponsors and alliances are behind us in our venture to find a new home for the New England Velodrome & Cycling Park and Velocity BMX.

At this time we have no further information about what these new track owners plan to do and can not comment on how things will be run. We do know that the staff at New England Velodrome and Cycling Park did everything it could to make this work and offered as much as possible, but given the calculated nature and timing of these events it just wasn’t enough. Also, the staff of the New England Velodrome & Cycling Park will not be associated in any way with this type of business because it shows a lack of respect for the sport of cycling, the community, and the riders who made it all possible.

In conclusion, on behalf of the New England Velodrome and Cycling Park, I would like to extend my gracious appreciation and heartfelt thanks to all of you for seeing a similar vision, helping to nurture and develop it and sharing the common spirit inherent in this sport. I wish everyone the best of luck in the future and I promise to continue my pursuit of developing an indoor cycling park here in New England.

Sincerely, Tony Eberhardt

Whenever I meet someone who finds out that I work on the directions team for Google Maps, the first question I’m asked is often “So when’s Google Maps going to add biking directions?” We’re big biking fans too, so we’ve been itching to give you a concrete answer. I don’t want to keep the good news a secret any longer, so the answer is: right now!

Today we’ve added biking directions and extensive bike trail data to Google Maps for the U.S. My team has been keeping close tabs on all the public support for biking directions that’s been steadily coming in, but we knew that when we added the feature, we wanted to do it right: we wanted to include as much bike trail data as possible, provide efficient routes, allow riders to customize their trip, make use of bike lanes, calculate rider-friendly routes that avoid big hills and customize the look of the map for cycling to encourage folks to hop on their bikes. So that’s exactly what we’ve done.

Let’s say you want to bike to work, or maybe you want to drive less and spend more time outdoors. Biking directions can help you find a convenient and efficient route that makes use of dedicated bike trails or lanes and avoids hills whenever possible. To find biking directions, select “Bicycling” from the drop-down menu when you do a directions search:

Read more here

* Dark green indicates a dedicated bike-only trail;
* Light green indicates a dedicated bike lane along a road;
* Dashed green indicates roads that are designated as preferred for bicycling, but without dedicated lanes

This is actually pretty awesome, and you can help it get better by using the report a problem link (bottom right of the map), basically this is what Boston has needed for a long time, a dynamic, user editable bike map of the city that can be collaborated on by thousands of bikers at all hours of the day and night.

Just to be silly I wanted to see what this could do so I typed in Boston to Ohio and low and behold in a mere 3 days and 11 hours google say I could be enjoying the midwest…As this grows it could be a boon to bike riders the world over.

You may have also noticed that the Longfellow bridge is getting a sparkling (and I do mean sparkling, that paint shines like a Mormon vampire) new coat of paint on the bike lanes and they are even putting in the little bike guy symbols. It truly is a fine day. (I will try to get a picture soon, if you have one send it in!).

In other fun bike news, I would like to personally thank the Cambridge street fix’n department. I called them Friday morning to report a HUUUUUUUGE pot hole on Broadway and Galileo. I am talking, size of your front wheel, and a foot deep kind of pot hole. Friday night I ride past, and the damn thing was filled it! They even filled in a couple others that I hadn’t asked them to.

Same Day Service!

If you use the bike lanes on Broadway and you appreciate this level of customer service, call up the pot hole hot-line (617-349-4854) and tell them thanks!

ps. you can also call that number to report potholes.

What did you do to celebrate this fine weather we have been having?

This more than anything else screams to me that we have pedaled past some critical point. 2 years ago on a day like this you would be hard pressed to find a single cyclist out on the streets, and more than likely it would be a grizzled super commuter that had been braving this kind of weather for 25+ years. Today however, on almost any given day you will find a whole host of cyclists plying the streets of Boston/Cambridge/Somerville.

So the real question is, “what happened?” What was it that suddenly opened the flood gates to cycling. Was it gas hitting 4 dollars a gallon? The threat of global warming? The cities baby steps towards cycling infrastructure? The obesity epidemic? The horrible pain of driving in this city? The rise in popularity of fixed gears? The creation of this website (ha ha)?

My opinion is that it was a bit of each. I think we have reached the point where the snowball is rolling down the hill getting bigger and bigger. The more people that cycle, the more people see cyclists. The more they see them, the more they feel comfortable giving it a try (everyone else is doing it right?). More cyclist will drive demand for more cycling infrastructure, which in turn will draw out more people (“New bike lane! I will try riding to work.”). More cyclists on the road will condition drivers to look for cyclists leading to less accidents, plus removing people from cars means there is less cars on the road which could also lead to less accidents (data from Cambridge and others seems to show this). There are many positive feedback loops in play here, all of which are pushing more and more people to try cycling for the first time as a mode of transportation.

My prediction is that 2010 is going to be the year that cycling took a HUGE leap forward in terms of popularity in Boston. The last remaining mental barrier is this weather, when spring rolls around expect the streets to be packed with two wheeled citizens. Get your friends, get your bikes, and come be part of the fun! Till then, a big tip of my helmet to all of you pushing through this weather. While us snow riders know that winter isn’t that bad, I think we are all hoping spring gets here fast.